Mariam Semaan is the first Arab woman to have received a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford. In this interview (conducted in November 2014) Mariam discusses her background and extensive experience while making the case for creating immersive experiences to engage news audiences. Interview includes audio excerpt from Mariam's talk at Bing Concert Hall which can be viewed at http://youtu.be/bJEedgkLYOE
Mariam Semaan followed her interest in human rights and women’s issues in the Arab world through college and into her career. She researched these issues while earning degrees in law and journalism from St. Joseph University in Beirut. And she learned about them firsthand – as a 5-foot 3-inch, night-shift editor supervising 15 experienced male printers at the newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour. Then, a job reporting for Radio Liban took her into the emotional terrain of war during uprisings against the pro-Syrian government in Beirut. It was at this state-owned outlet that she also experienced interference in her journalism. So she seized a chance to help adapt Elle magazine to a Middle Eastern female readership. As editorial manager, she faced all the issues of a news start-up: from finding a sustainable business model to bringing editorial performance up to the magazine’s standards. Two years later, she jumped into another start-up, RK Productions, which was developing a new weekly television interview program, “A Different Talk.” She became its executive producer and RK’s production chief.
